Obama, Sarkozy & Iran

The new "revelations" about Iran's nuclear program gave the world a chance to see President Obama in action in the realm of foreign affairs. Apparently Sarkozy was not impressed.
From the Wall Street Journal:

President Sarkozy ... had been "frustrated" for months about Mr. Obama's reluctance to confront Iran, a senior French government official told us, and saw an opportunity to change momentum. But the Administration told the French that it didn't want to "spoil the image of success" for Mr. Obama's debut at the U.N. and his homily calling for a world without nuclear weapons, according to the Paris daily Le Monde. So the Iran bombshell was pushed back a day to Pittsburgh, where the G-20 were meeting to discuss economic policy...

"We are right to talk about the future," Mr. Sarkozy said, referring to the U.S. resolution on strengthening arms control treaties. "But the present comes before the future, and the present includes two major nuclear crises," i.e., Iran and North Korea. "We live in the real world, not in a virtual one." No prize for guessing into which world the Frenchman puts Mr. Obama.

Was that the President of France being more forceful than the President of the United States? I think somewhere pigs are flying.

1980 vs Today

Something to keep in mind as the current administration buries us deeper and deeper into debt under the guise of financial stimulus and job creation.

ALERT: Olympia Snowe Showing Signs of Fiscal Restraint!

Who would have thought....from Congress Daily:

A defeated amendment to require final CBO scores before the Finance Committee votes on healthcare legislation has opened a potential divide between Democrats and Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine -- the lone Republican who might support the Democrats' bill......

CBO Director Elmendorf said Tuesday final scores would take two weeks.

"I just don't think that's is acceptable," said Finance Chairman Max Baucus, who voted against the amendment along with every Democrat except Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas.....

"I truly do not understand the skepticism about this request," Snowe said. "This is about doing our job. If it takes two more weeks, it takes two more weeks. We're talking about trillions of dollars in the final analysis."

"Is there something happening in two weeks that we cannot wait?" she continued. "Is it the Columbus Day recess? What is it? Because I don't get it."

Read the full article here.

Cap & Trade Costs Per Household

So much for no tax raises on the middle class.

From CBS News:

The Obama administration has privately concluded that a cap and trade law would cost American taxpayers up to $200 billion a year, the equivalent of hiking personal income taxes by about 15 percent.

A previously unreleased analysis prepared by the U.S. Department of Treasury says the total in new taxes would be between $100 billion to $200 billion a year. At the upper end of the administration’s estimate, the cost per American household would be an extra $1,761 a year.

A second memorandum, which was prepared for Obama’s transition team after the November election, says this about climate change policies: “Economic costs will likely be on the order of 1 percent of GDP, making them equal in scale to all existing environmental regulation.”

…Because personal income tax revenues bring in around $1.37 trillion a year, a $200 billion additional tax would be the equivalent of a 15 percent increase a year. A $100 billion additional tax would represent a 7 or 8 percent increase a year.

ACORN and Obama

Rich Lowry, editor of National Review, wrote a succinct summary of ACORN's recent scandal brough to light by documentarian James O'Keefe, 25, and Hannah Giles, 20 who posed as pimp and prostitute. Some of the highlights:

In Baltimore, ACORN staff told Giles if she makes $96,000 a year selling sex, she should tell the government she only makes $9,600. Her occupation, meanwhile, should be reported as "performing artist."...

O'Keefe notes that they want a house for 13 underage girls who will be imported from El Salvador to work as prostitutes. Only three - not all 13 - of the girls can be listed as dependents, ACORN prudently advises. And so long as they are under 16, they will make O'Keefe and his partner eligible for the child tax credit....

In Washington, D.C., O'Keefe and Giles were told they could lie in their loan application for the house. "We are looking out for you," an ACORN staffer said, reassuringly.

In Brooklyn, Giles was told to identify herself in loan documents as a "freelancer" and to bury cash proceeds of her work in the backyard. Imagine what tax advice John Dillinger might have gotten had he ever consulted ACORN.

I have been reticent to attack President Obama's character, hoping and believing that while I disagreed entirely with the direction he wanted to take the country that he was still basically a decent guy. But recent revelations are giving me an awfully uneasy feeling. Obama's ties to ACORN go back 20 years. To think he was blind to their methods means, like the Jeremiah Wright issue, we have to assume he only knew about the good stuff and was absent anytime something controversial came up. It stretches credibility to fall for that defense twice.

Oh well, McCain warned us.

Doing the Math

And as I have said over and over again, I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits – period. This plan will be paid for. The middle-class will realize greater security, not higher taxes. And if we can successfully slow the growth of health care costs by just one-tenth of one percent each year, it will actually reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over the long term.- President Obama, last week.

Just how long is long term? According to research done by the Pacific Research Institute as interpreted by economist King Banaian, it is 3,634 years. You see, based on current data, in a ten-year window, even if Obama delivered exactly what he promised- no wiggle room- it would only save $33 billion dollars. Maybe the president needs a "Math Czar."

20/20 on Obamacare

John Stossell of ABC's wekkly news show "20/20" gives some interesting information about public option-style health care.

More on Those 45 Million Uninsured

This clip is a little longer than what I would normally post here but it is a great explanation of why we need real facts, not politically charged hyperbole, if we are ever to really fix the health care problem in America.

Community Health Centers: Common Ground?

Last month I wrote about the potential of Community Health Centers in the ongoing health debate. Now the idea appears to be picking up steam. From The Hill:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Thursday that healthcare cooperatives could be as effective as a government insurance plan, a stance that could draw strong criticism from liberals. ...Reid explained that the fundamental problem is that insurance companies enjoy anti-trust exemptions and therefore have little incentive to offer consumers the best possible deal. He suggested that co-ops could compete as effectively as a public option.

More Debt

From The Hill:

The Senate must move legislation to raise the federal debt limit beyond $12.1 trillion by mid-October, a move viewed as necessary despite protests about the record levels of red ink.

The move will highlight the nation’s record debt, which has been central to Republican attacks against Democratic congressional leaders and President Barack Obama. The year’s deficit is expected to hit a record $1.6 trillion.

“Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren.” Guess who said it?

Then-Senator Obama in a 2006 floor speech that preceded a Senate vote to extend the debt limit.
Apparently there is no real change.

Schilling for Senate?

As a Republican and a die-hard Red Sox fan I had to pass this along. Not sure what I think yet, but it certainly makes things interesting. From Political Wire:

Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling suggested yesterday that he was weighing a bid for U.S. Senate in the upcoming Massachusetts special election and on WEEI-AM this morning he talked about his main credentials for the job.

Said Schilling: "It's a legitimate question, and a question everyone would ask. My credentials are that I have no baggage. I have no special interests and I have no ties."